Sporting Kansas City’s MLS debutants announced themselves in a major way on Saturday night at BC Place in Vancouver.
Mexican striker Alan Pulido, acquired on a club-record transfer fee last December, prodded home a pinpoint header in the 17th minute on a headed assist from Croatian newcomer Roberto Puncec. Some 22 minutes later, Israeli midfielder Gadi Kinda marked his maiden MLS appearance with a Goal of the Week nominee.
Both plays were instrumental in lifting Sporting to a momentous 3-1 win over Vancouver Whitecaps FC.
“For those guys to make an impact immediately helps them individually,” Sporting Manager Peter Vermes said of Pulido, Puncec and Kinda. “They want to show their quality right off the bat—their value as players and what they can bring to the club.”
For Pulido to open his scoring account in Week 1 will only amplify the excitement surrounding the 28-year-old, who led Liga MX last fall with 12 goals for Chivas de Guadalajara. Puncec partnered captain Matt Besler in central defense, limiting Vancouver’s effectiveness in the final third. As for Kinda, his comprehensive performance resulted in MLS Team of the Week honors.
“Pulido scores, Kinda scores, Puncec gets the assist on Pulido’s goal. Goodness, it couldn’t have gotten any better from a general manager’s perspective,” Vermes said with a coy smile while speaking to media on Tuesday.
Pulido, Kinda and Puncec comprise only a fraction of Sporting’s offseason imports, with the likes of English Premier League veteran Winston Reid joining the club on loan from West Ham United and Khiry Shelton and Amadou Dia beginning their second stints with the club.
While Vermes has been delighted by the early return from Sporting’s newcomers, he believes partial credit goes to the players who have already been at the club for several seasons.
“For good players, (acclimating on) the soccer side is easy. What is difficult for players who have never played abroad before can be the cultural aspect,” Vermes said. “We have a very welcoming locker room. Our guys take (new) players in right away and they make them feel right at home.”
Even so, Vermes asserts that the onus remains on the new signees to show their qualities on and off the pitch.
“The key is that when you get here, yeah, it’s great. But you have to prove that you can play, you’re a good guy and you work hard. If you do that, it makes your assimilation that much easier.”
With eight offseason acquisitions arriving in Kansas City and a plethora of key contributors returning from last year, Vermes certainly has squad depth at his disposal. Look no further than Saturday’s victory in Vancouver, when second-half substitutes Gerso Fernandes, the assist man, and scorer Erik Hurtado combined for a dazzling 95th-minute goal that put the game out of reach.
“For me, it’s going to be game-to-game,” Vermes said of his squad selection. “We have a lot of very good players in the team and a lot of competition at all of the positions. We had that last year, but unfortunately we succumbed to a number of injuries that were at times insurmountable. That took away competition, so hopefully this year we will have a level of health that lets us keep that competition. The best lineup is going to prevail week after week. There’s no magical formula in that regard.”
